36 days ago Martin O’Neill turned 61 as he enters a key period in life, but also his management career.

The Northern Irishman is at a crossroads. From being touted as Alex Ferguson’s successor at Manchester United to being sacked by a struggling Sunderland last weekend, O’Neill has important decisions to make over his next role.

But judging from some comments and speculation in recent days, the FAI intend to flutter their eyelashes in his – and ex-Reading boss Brian McDermott’s - direction as Giovanni Trapattoni’s tenure winds down.

The Italian’s contract runs out in just over a year and it is unlikely that O’Neill would be willing to wait that long for his next job – unless he has not been snapped up by then or Trap has been removed from his position.

Whether the former Celtic, Aston Villa and Leicester City manager would be willing or suitable for international management is another issue.

The differences between day-to-day management and working with players every few months are well documented.

Throughout his management career, O’Neill has been famed, not only for his energy on the touchline, but also the fact that he favours drills and intensity on the training ground.

This works well on a day-to-day basis with players but whether that drive would translate itself effectively with protracted periods of inertia raises some doubts.

Some of the top club managers of all time like Fabio Capello and Giovanni Trapattoni (at first with the Italian national team) have struggled when left in charge of international sides.

But in terms of communication, O’Neill would be an improvement on Trap - obviously in linguistic terms - but also in relation to man management.

The former Northern Ireland captain does not have a tendency to fall out with players with the only exception being a training ground “contretemps” – in O’Neill’s own words – with Nigel Reo-Coker at Aston Villa four years ago.

Generally the impression given by his ex-players is a positive one.

He would also have an innate understanding of the Irish players’ culture in a way that Trap has failed to grasp.

O’Neill’s recent struggles are often related to his poor use of the transfer market with his penchant for paying over the odds for overrated British players, doing him a disservice.

Of course, with international football that is irrelevant so the focus should be on his tactical flexibility as this has been an issue under Trapattoni.

At Sunderland, O’Neill generally favoured a 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 until Danny Graham’s £5 million arrival in January pushed him to play a 4-4-2.

The more modern 4-2-3-1 was also his favoured formation at Aston Villa, while it was 3-5-2 at Celtic.

From the evidence during his career so far suggests that he is comfortable using a range of systems and would be more inclined to adapt some flexibility if he were to take on the Ireland role.